After having the old girl up and running for a year (got broken in and tuned at King on Jan 1st 2012), I decided to buy her a couple anniversary presents! I picked up a CTR carbon gauge overlay from ICB http://www.icbmotorsport.com/ci96ctrtyrca.html (cheapest I found and SUPER fast shipping) as well as a Si badge for my front grille. After getting the parts, I decided to do a little search on how to install the bezel because I noticed a couple immediate differences... and came up with nothing! So I decided to take a few pics of the process and do a write-up for it. This is my first write-up, and I will do my best to cover every necessary step in the process and a few others I found helpful, as well as answer any questions that arise.... BUT, if I totally fudge the bucket on this, please forgive me :D

As many of you are familiar with this view, here's the starting point.... right in front of the wheel. Get yourself a stubby #2 phillips, a long #2 phillips, a flashlight, cigs/weed/beer/all 3....

Next is to remove the 2 screws in the top of the gauge surround.

At this point, it was obvious that my cluster had never been removed as the screws were super tight and the surround DID NOT want to come out easily. I decided to pull my lower dash cover (3 screws), this was helpful as it gave me access to the tab on the back left part of the surround (i was able to push and pull it through the dash). There were numerous times that I thought I was going to break the surround, just take your time and be easy with it.

After getting the surround off, it left me with access to the 4 screws (2 top, 2 lower sides) holding the cluster in.

Now that the cluster is loose, things get a little tricky. You need to fanagle the cluster around so you can get to the 4 plugs (possibly 5, probably the cigs beer and weed..... :D ) out from the back of the cluster. I found it easiest to pull the left side out a bit to gain access to the plugs. If you push the plug into the cluster FIRST, then push the tab in to remove it they will come out MUCH easier!

After a little shimmying, your cluster should be out of the dash. This was the point in time where I moved my operation inside. It has been cold as fugg here, and my little Amish fireplace just wasn't doing it.... So now you have the cluster, but understand that you need to be as careful as possible with it! You now need to remove the black harness with a bulb on each end.

Then you need to remove the clear cover. This is held on by tabs (I want to say 6 or 8) around the cluster. Work your way around, prying little by little. It took me a couple minutes, but it eventually broke loose. Once the clear cover is off, next is the black tabs (just like the clear ones). I believe there are 8 again... or 6, possibly 7. Be easy with these, it took me a bit longer on these than the cover just for reference. So, once the black surround is off you will be left with this....

taking off the old overlay is easy, just pry up on the corners little by little and work your way around. The cluster should now look like this.....

Now here is where I noticed the differences. Evidently CTRs didn't come with a Maintenance reminder, so there is no spot for one on the CTR overlay. There is also no cruise control on CTRs, so the light will be covered up (no biggie, its just a light). So what you have to do is remove the the push button on the cluster. You need to remove the 4 screws from the back of the cluster, be careful, as the spedo will drop out if you do this with the cluster upside down. You can now pull out the spedo section to get access to the button.

You can see in the above pictures how the button is in the spedo section. I thought that if I gently pried on this it would come out... I was wrong! I broke the tab holding the button in, not a huge deal, but disappointing:facepalm: My suggestion is to use a small phillips and push up on the tab from the bottom to try to get the lower part loose..... Take that bit of info with a grain of salt, considering I broke mine ( I was trying to pull it out from the side). That will then leave you with the button and a spring separate from the spedo section like such....

Now it comes time to get things back together. After putting the spedo section back in I went to put on the CTR overlay. I was having difficulty getting all the tabs in and it sitting flush, so i loosened the screws on the back of the cluster to give the gauges a bit of room to move. After doing this, I went back to getting the new overlay on. After a bit of finagling, i got it to sit pretty damn close to flush. The next step is getting the black surround with the tabs on it back on the cluster. I took this time to wipe it down with some Meguire's Natural Shine (best shit I've found to use on the civic's interior) before putting it back on. Wipe it down, then wipe it clean with a dry microfiber rag, being sure to watch your fingers when installing it. After that's back on, I took the time to wipe down the clear cover inside and out. I'm a clean freak, so the extra cleaning is up to y'all. Once everything is back together, get all of the screws tightened back up on the back side. Your cluster should now look like so....
Don't forget the black wires with the bulbs on each end!

So, now it's time for reassembly! I took an extra step here, as I have a fair amount of dash rattles thanks to my 85a Innovative mounts. I used eDead v4 from Elemental designs to pad the areas I thought needed it before putting the cluster back in. Get the cluster in the dash, get the plugs back in (color coded), get the 4 screws in that hold the cluster, get the black surround back in and the 2 screws that hold it in from the top, and if you removed the lower dash cover put that back on and the 3 screws that hold it in. You should now have everything back together successfully! Sit back, enjoy, and burn one down for the GREAT SUCCESS!

And a shot of the new badge....

Hope this helped some of you guys.... if not, fugg it! Cheers and beers gentlemen!:beer: